Townsends of Longhope, 1700s (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 15:10 (1969 days ago) @ Townie63

You're welcome Townie ! And yes I think your search could well be a difficult one.

Out of curiosity I've just searched for Townsend in a surname profiler website. Sadly my old favourite of these site's seems to have died, a shame. It may have been perhaps replaced by this one which I must say I'm not a fan of, maybe it's optimised for Smartphone/tablet users but for this old fogey with an even older pc it doesn't display very well, hopefully other users find it better to use.

Anyway, in the 1881 Census the Townsend name is fairly evenly distributed throughout the UK, but especially predominant in Oxfordshire, followed by Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire in that order. I guess this suggests it's quite an old surname, and is not as much of a "localised" surname as I'd wondered - compared to say Beard which is very much a Gloucestershire name.
https://britishsurnames.co.uk/surname/townsend/map

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Pleased to say this site's still alive ! Unlike some I've found that try to explain the meanings of surnames, this one seems to be factually based. No surprises with the origins of the Townsend surname, or to find it's quite old, both of which I think explains why it can be found all across Britain.
http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Townsend

Hoping this is of interest.